That Which Doesn't Kill Us
by DramaLexy
Summary: Sequel to "Starting Over Backwards." Eight months later, a wedding should be the biggest of Helen's problems but life for the Sanctuary's residents always stays interesting. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

TITLE: That Which Doesn't Kill Us...

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing but little James.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: So after much, MUCH longer than I intended, here's the sequel I said I would write. (If you haven't read "Starting Over Backwards" already, it will help this make a lot more sense). I was inspired by some events from Season 2 (you'll know what when we get there) and Season 3. After several rewrites, I finally got this put this together. I hope you enjoy and please don't be shy about feedback! :-) Oh, and the title comes from Friedrich Nietzsche - "That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger."

* * *

Helen Magnus sat in her office, trying to go through her backlog of e-mail. Recently, her personal life had made keeping up with her work a little bit more difficult. Balancing two children, an international network of facilities, and plans for a wedding – which was now only days away – wasn't easy. However, she wasn't going to complain; she had never been happier and generally sleep wasn't all that high on her list of priorities anyway.

After completing a reply to the head of the Moscow Sanctuary, she decided to take a break from work for a few minutes. The silence in the room was beginning to concern her; she hadn't heard so much as a peep from the corner of the room that housed her eight-month-old son's play area. It bothered her slightly when James got very quiet, because she could remember well that silence had always meant trouble with his older sister. Most of the time, her concerns were unfounded, since her two children were polar opposites in almost every sense. James was a quiet thinker and could usually keep himself silently amused with a toy for far longer than Helen believed should be possible at his age. Most of the time.

As Helen glanced across the room, she quickly realized that today the silence SHOULD have worried her – her son's play area was empty. "James?" she called as she got up from her seat, fear flooding through her body. "Where are you, luv?" For most parents, the idea of their child disappearing into thin air was just a joke, but for her it was a terrifying possibility that could become reality at any moment.

Helen started to walk around her desk and nearly tripped over her son. James was sitting serenely on the floor, sucking his thumb as he clutched a little stuffed dog to his chest. He simply stared up at her with wide blue eyes as if to say, 'Obviously, I'm right here.'

Helen reached to pick him up as she asked, "What are you doing over here?" James appeared to be unharmed, so her fear eased slightly but didn't disappear. He'd still somehow gotten across the room without her noticing. Had her first thought been correct and his teleportation abilities had suddenly manifested? Tests from his first weeks of life had revealed that, unlike his older sister, James probably wouldn't need genetic modifications to make his abnormal abilities active. At his young age, he had no way of understanding how to control those abilities. In addition to the risk of rematerializing inside of a wall or a floor, there was a very high likelihood that he'd damage his brain, like his father. Helen had nightmares about the havoc that would be wreaked within little James' head.

She was about to go down to the infirmary to check her son over when she realized that the plastic gate on his play area was hanging slightly open. "Did you do that?" she asked as she knelt to inspect the fastener. It showed no signs of damage; it had simply been opened. James smiled at her, as though he understood the question and was proud of his accomplishment. Perhaps there was nothing abnormal about his breakout after all. Perhaps her fears would go unfounded for one more day.

John walked through her doorway a moment later. "Henry wants to see you in the lab when you have a chance," he told Helen before noticing the expression on her face. "What's wrong? You look pale."

She handed James to his father. "I'm fine," she replied as she went back to her desk, "Other than the fact that your son nearly gave me a coronary."

He frowned. "What did he do?"

"Cheeky little monkey figured out how to open his playpen and made an escape."

John laughed. "Did he now? Clever boy." James giggled as his father tossed him up in the air.

Helen wasn't nearly as amused. Even if her worst fears hadn't come true, the incident was still worrisome. She hadn't even noticed what her son was doing; if he'd gotten out of the room, there was no telling what kind of trouble he could have gotten into. The Sanctuary wasn't really a place for small children. "I suppose we need to rethink our plans for him during the day. I'm obviously not being attentive enough."

"I'm sure you're not the first mother to have their very intelligent child defeat a cheap plastic lock," John pointed out.

"Most mothers don't have a basement like mine," she tightly replied.

"Then it's a good thing he's still too short to reach the buttons on the lift." That comment earned him a scathing look. "Helen – " he started in attempt to appease her, but was interrupted by a squawk from James. John turned to see what had caught his son's eye and found his daughter in the doorway behind him.

"Hey, buddy!" Ashley said as she reached for the baby. Everyone knew that she and James had a special bond. "What have you been up to?"

"A bit of mischief, apparently," John told her. Ashley cocked her head in confusion as she looked between her parents, but Helen shook her head in dismissal.

"Did you need something?" she asked her daughter.

"I thought I'd take the little prince outside to play around for a bit. That okay?"

Helen nodded. "It's fine."

Before she could get out the door, however, the intercom on the desk beeped. "Hey, Magnus, you have a visitor," Will's voice came through.

Ashley smiled. "Ooh, I bet that's Grandpa!" she exclaimed before disappearing down the hall with her little brother.

John turned to Helen, studying her for a moment. He'd been growing more concerned over the past couple of months that all of her worries about him and their children and her work really would cause her to have a coronary. However, he had no idea how to make any of it better. "Are you truly all right?" he asked, taking her hand.

Helen tried to smile, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I don't really have time at the moment not to be, do I?" she replied.

"We'll make time," he promised, but she shook her head.

"No. I suppose I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed today. My inbox is still a mess and I have several calls I need to make about arrangements for the wedding and now that Father's here…"

"Can I help?" he offered.

"No, I'll be all right. I suppose we should get downstairs and say hello."

John kept a hold of her hand when she tried to head out the door. "I love you, Helen Magnus."

Her smile turned more genuine. Despite all of the issues in their lives, she was incredibly fortunate. "And I love you, John Druitt."

* * *

As Ashley had guessed, Gregory was in fact waiting down in the foyer. By the time Helen and John caught up with their children, he was in the middle of doling out hugs and presents to his grandchildren.

"Hello, Father," Helen told him.

He smiled as he hugged her as well. "You look wonderful."

"Thank you."

"I trust you've been looking after them properly?" Gregory somewhat-sternly asked John.

Helen rolled her eyes. "Father – "

John stopped her, however. "It's all right. If I was in his place, I'd have the same concerns. I guarantee you," he told Gregory, "That nothing on this Earth is as important to me as your daughter and our children."

He looked the other man up and down for a few moments, but finally nodded. "All right, then."

"If you're quite finished," Helen told her father, "Ashley can show you your room."

Gregory smiled. "Lead the way," he told his granddaughter.

* * *

The family and Helen's staff all had dinner together that night. Gregory had several tales from his travels to share, and wanted to hear about Helen's recent adventures with the Sanctuary. It was a very pleasant evening.

Helen took James upstairs to give him a bath and get him ready for bed. Her father had had a nanny for her after her mother's death, but she'd never been able to imagine letting someone else take over the simple pleasures of interacting with her children. Once James was in his little sleeper, they sat together by the fireplace in her room so she could give him a bottle.

"Do Mummy a favor," she whispered to her sleepy son, "No more disappearing acts. At least not right now. Let me get through the next week before you start throwing new things at me, hmm?"

A quiet knock sounded on the doorframe, and Helen looked up to see Ashley. "Hey," she whispered to her mother. "You want me to put him to bed?"

"I can do it."

She shrugged. "I didn't get to hang out with him much today and you look exhausted. Go to bed; I can get him down."

Helen shook her head. "I have too much to do to go to bed."

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "Have you slept at all this week?"

"I'll be fine. But if you really want to take him…" Helen carefully unwrapped the blanket so that Ashley could pick her brother up. James whimpered a little bit at the loss of warmth, but his sister cuddled him and he quieted down.

"Come on, little prince," she softly told him.

"Thank you."

"Mmm-hmm. Get some rest at some point tonight."

Helen fully intended to get up and go back to her office, but John found her asleep in that chair two hours later when he came upstairs. He shook his head at the sight; she'd always been one to push herself until she really couldn't go on anymore.

John started to lift her into his arms to carry her to bed, but Helen woke up in the process. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Taking you to bed."

"No, I need to – "

"You need to get some rest. It will still all be there in the morning." Helen would have protested further, but realized she really was too tired to do so. So she simply let him get her changed into nightclothes and tucked into their bed.

"Thank you," she whispered, starting to fall asleep again.

John smiled. Two years ago, he never would have dreamed that his life could be like this. "You're welcome, my love."

* * *

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

Two days later, John and Helen were set to be married. She and Ashley got up in the morning and had breakfast together before locking themselves in the younger girl's room in order to get ready.

"What do you think of this shade?" Ashley asked as she opened a tube of lipstick and handed it to her mother.

"That'll be fine, thank you."

Ashley smiled as she watched their reflections in the mirror. "You know, now that I can actually remember meeting my father for the first time, the fact that THIS is happening – that you're getting married and everything's okay – seems crazy."

Helen smiled. "Yes, well…luckily he could overcome that first impression."

"Yeah," she agreed before her expression turned contemplative. "I've been thinking about starting to call him Dad."

Helen turned around to face her daughter, surprised. She'd never imagined when Ashley first found out who her father was that they would all be a family someday. It had taken over a century, and there was a lot of water under the bridge, but finally everything was how it was always supposed to have been. "I think that he would like that very much," she told her daughter with a smile.

Ashley shrugged, trying to play it off. "I just figure that it'll confuse the munchkin to no end if he and I are calling him different things." She looked over to where James was playing by himself in a little seat by the window, oblivious to their conversation.

"Oh, I see," Helen knowingly replied with a nod. "It's just for your brother's sake."

"Yeah," she agreed, none too convincingly. "And…he IS my dad."

Helen smiled. "Yes, he is."

Ashley narrowed her eyes slightly. "Don't look at me like that. It's not like I'm going to go totally crazy and change my last name or anything."

Helen hadn't even thought of that idea. She was planning on keeping her own last name after the wedding; after nearly 160 years, she couldn't think of calling herself anything besides Dr. Helen Magnus. But little James was a Druitt, and she knew that if a great many things had gone differently, Ashley would have been born one, too. "I don't know if I'd call that crazy…" she told her daughter.

Ashley shook her head. "It's not going to happen, Mom. Besides, I like being a Magnus."

Helen smiled. She had to admit that there was something intriguing about having the women in the family take one name and the men take another. It wasn't conventional at all – and she liked that. "Well, it's up to you," she stated before she went back to finishing her makeup.

Ashley just watched her for a long moment before turning back to her own preparations. After having her DNA toyed with and nearly dying, she still wasn't completely back to being her old self. She had come a very long way, though, and now recalled so much of her life that it was usually a surprise when she tripped over another hole in her memory. Helen had been the first person that Ashley had redeveloped a connection with, even before she'd started to regain a meaningful amount of her memory. Once those memories had finally started to come back, it had been a lot to sort through, but Helen had always been there with her along the way. Ashley hadn't even really been surprised when she one day recollected that she'd never really longed for a father as a child – it was obvious that her mother had always been her everything. But now John was finally in their lives for good and although figuring out his role was taking some time, she knew that they were all better off with him around.

Both women looked up at the sound of a knock on the door. "Who is it?" Helen called.

"Your fiancé," John called back. She smiled as she got up from the vanity and went over to the door, though she didn't open it.

"You're not supposed to be here, John. It's tradition," she reminded him. She could picture the smile on his face in response to that comment.

"I thought that you had already given up on us ever being traditional?" he asked.

Ashley laughed. "He's got a point," she told her mother.

Rolling her eyes, Helen unlocked the door and opened it just enough so that she could see John's face. "What do you need?" she asked him and was surprised when he leaned forward and kissed her. "What was that for?" she inquired.

"Good morning."

Helen laughed. "Good morning to you as well. Is that all?"

John nodded. "It was. This was the first day of the rest of our lives together, and I intend to ensure that we always say a proper good morning to each other."

That earned him another laugh. Since their engagement, he'd become even more hopeless of a romantic than she remembered from their days in England. "Really, John. Go get ready; your future wife will be thoroughly annoyed with you if you're late to your own wedding."

He nodded, bowing slightly. "Yes, ma'am."

Ashley was also laughing as Helen shut and re-locked the door once John had left. "You guys are so cute it's almost sickening," she told her mother.

"Thank you…I think."

"You're happy, right, Mom?" she asked as their laughter faded.

Helen didn't even have to think about it before she nodded. "I am…Are you?"

Ashley smiled. "Yeah. Come on; let me finish your hair."

* * *

The estate's chapel had seen many sad affairs over the years, but this was easily going to be the happiest that it had ever hosted.

"Are you nervous?" Will asked as he entered the room and noticing the groom slowly pacing back and forth before the altar.

John smiled as he turned around. "Not at all. Just…very ready."

Will returned his grin. "I'm happy for you guys…And more than that, I'm glad the boss is happy."

"Thank you…I don't know if she's said it, but I know that your and Henry's support means a great deal to Helen."

"Nah, she hasn't said it, but I wouldn't really expect her to," he replied with a little smile. "There've been a lot of changes around here recently, hasn't there?"

John nodded. "Yes there have. Hopefully this will be the beginning of some stability."

* * *

Thirty minutes later, the minister and assorted guests had arrived and everyone was ready. "Love you, Mom," Ashley told Helen before she took James inside of the chapel to sit down.

"You, too," she replied. "Thank you for all your help."

Gregory smiled at his daughter as he took her arm. "You look beautiful," he told her. "I am so glad that I'm here for this."

She returned his smile. "I'm glad as well."

He hesitated for a moment before they went inside. "I just want you to know, Helen…I'm very proud of you."

She looked up at that, surprised. She had never doubted her father's love for her as she grew up, but he wasn't an incredibly sentimental man and that certainly hadn't changed since his return. "Thank you, Father," Helen told him. It was for so much more than just his declaration.

Gregory nodded toward the door into the chapel. "Shall we?"

When the chapel door opened, revealing his soon-to-be-wife, John was pretty certain that he forgot how to breathe. He'd told Helen many times in the past century that she was beautiful, but they all paled in comparison. Her hair hung in gentle curls around her face, her eyes were shining like jewels, and the dress that she'd chosen was absolutely perfect. He was simply in awe, and silently thanked whatever higher power was responsible for making this day possible.

"I take it that you approve?" Helen whispered with a slight, sly smile as she stood beside him. John didn't trust his mouth enough to respond.

"We are gathered together today," the minister began, "In the presence of friends and family to witness the marriage of Helen and John, to share their joy and to celebrate their love. Marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of human relationships. No ceremony can create your marriage; only you can do that – through love and patience; through dedication and perseverance; through talking and listening; through helping, supporting and believing in each other; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate your differences, and by learning to make the important things matter, and to let go of the rest. This ceremony affirms the choice you have made to stand together for the rest of your lives. If anyone has just cause why these two should not be wed, come forward now or forever hold your peace." When that statement was met with only silence, the minister started to continue.

Before he could utter a single syllable, the door at the back of the chapel creaked open. Everyone turned around to look at who had entered. Nikola Tesla smiled back at them. "Oh, don't mind me."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Feedback is greatly appreciated!**


	3. Chapter 3

Upon seeing Tesla at the back of the chapel, the Big Guy started to get up and Helen noticed that John took a step in their old colleague's direction as well. "Easy, easy!" the vampiric scientist said, raising both hands as a placating gesture. "No need for anyone to panic. I assume that my invitation to this little soiree was lost in the mail?"

Helen put a hand on John's arm to calm him. "What do you want, Nikola?" she asked.

His mischievous grin grew wider. "I always knew that you'd made an absolutely beautiful bride…All I want is to witness this momentous occasion." He took a seat in a pew at the back. "I'll be quiet as a mouse. Carry on!"

The members of Helen's staff looked to her for direction; Will, Henry, and the Big Guy would have been more than happy to toss Nikola out on his ass if she gave them the word. However, she knew that dealing with him would likely be a bigger distraction than necessary; Nikola could be handled later.

She shook her head slightly and the Big Guy grudgingly sat back down. Her fiancé, however, was still tense. He and Nikola had a long history, and most of it wasn't pretty. "John," she whispered to him. "Not now."

He looked from her to Nikola, who was doing an innocent choirboy imitation at the back, and finally rejoined Helen in front of the minister. "Continue, please," he quietly requested.

"I assume that there are no objections?" the man felt obligated to ask again. Nearly everyone shot Tesla a look that dared him to open his mouth. He wisely decided not to push his luck.

Ashley stepped forward, having picked a passage to read. Helen had been adamant that she wanted her daughter included in the ceremony. This wasn't just a new beginning for her and John, but it affected their children as well, especially their eldest. "This is from 'Gift from the Sea', by Anne Morrow Lindbergh," she told everyone as she unfolded a sheet of paper.

"When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb, afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now." She folded the paper back and offered her parents a smile before retaking her seat.

"Please say your vows," the minister prompted.

The couple turned to each other, and John smiled at Helen before she began. "I, Helen, take you, John, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish from this day forward until death do us part."

"I, John, take you, Helen, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish from this day forward until death do us part."

The Big Guy had been entrusted with their rings, which he brought forward at that time. The minister blessed them before offering them to be exchanged. "I give you this ring as a token of my love and devotion," John said as he slipped Helen's onto her finger. "I marry you with this ring, with all that I have and all that I am."

"I give you this ring as a symbol of my love," she replied as she put his ring on. "I pledge to you all that I am and ever will be and gladly join my life to yours."

The minister smiled. "By the power of your love and commitment, and the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife…Well, go on!" he added when neither of the newlyweds moved.

John laughed as he leaned forward to kiss his wife. "Finally," he whispered to her just before their lips met.

* * *

The reception was held in the main study, with food and decorations and music. Helen smiled as she watched John and Ashley dance together; the day had been perfect. The person lingering by the window with a wine glass caught her eye, and she handed James to her father before going over to confront her old friend. Now that she'd successfully gotten through the ceremony, she wanted to know exactly why Tesla had decided to grace them with his presence.

"So, what ARE you doing here, Nikola?" she asked as she joined him.

"No, 'nice to see you'?" he asked. "'Welcome to my lovely home'? That sort of thing?"

Helen smiled. "I'll believe I'll reserve judgment on whether it's nice to see you until I know why you're here."

"You cut me to the quick," he admonished before taking a sip of his drink. "Sorry I was late, but was that an entrance or was that an entrance?"

"You're going to make just as memorable of an exit shortly if you don't answer my question," she shot back. He laughed.

"I would have thought that you'd be all delirious with joy on a day like today. Is there trouble in paradise already?"

He was grabbed up by the back of his shirt collar a moment later as John joined them. "I believe my wife has asked you a question," the wiry giant told the vampire.

"I bet that you just love the way that word sounds, huh?" Tesla retorted, shrugging free of the other man's grasp. "Relax, both of you. This is an important day! And only 121 years late, but who's fault is that, huh?"

"Nikola," Helen warned him.

"Would you believe me if I said I was just feeling a bit sentimental?" he asked.

"No," both of them replied in unison.

"I'm hurt," he claimed with a well-practiced pout. "We're down to three of the original Five now and I thought it was my duty to be here in honor of those who can't."

"You don't really expect us to believe that, do you?" John asked.

"Believe what you want. I just wanted to be a witness to your special day."

John narrowed his eyes. "I'll warn you – if you do anything to hurt anyone in my family, we'll quickly be down to two of the original Five."

Nikola sniffed. "Now, now. Let's not pretend truth isn't true. We both know that she's got you on a very short leash these days; I sincerely doubt you'd risk your sanity over little old me."

John glowered down at him. "Test me and find out."

Across the room, Henry had noticed the trio and decided it looked like their conversation was about to become dangerous. "Hey, everybody," he called. "It's time for cake!" When none of the three them moved, he added, "Uh, I need the bride and groom over here."

John reluctantly turned away from Nikola and followed Helen over to the table with the cake. "I have a bad feeling about him," he whispered to her as they went.

"I know. So do I. But there's little we can do about it right now."

Everyone gathered around to watch them cut the cake. The three-tier lemon and chocolate creation was topped with little figurines of a groom helping the bride out of an ornate carriage. Helen couldn't help but laugh when she saw that the groom was bald. "It didn't look like that when I ordered it," she commented, turning toward her daughter.

Ashley smiled as she held her little brother on her hip. "Guilty," she admitted. "C'mon, it's more realistic this way!"

John picked up the knife and cut two pieces. After setting the slices down on plates, he handed one to Helen. "Don't even think about shoving that in my face," she warned him.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he replied with a smile.

Almost simultaneously, they both hit the other in the face with their slices. All of their guests laughed and cheered.

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Thanks for the feedback I've gotten so far. It's good to know that a couple people like this.**


	4. Chapter 4

Since things around the Sanctuary were generally pretty busy, John and Helen had decided that they would wait until some other time to take a honeymoon. They did, however, get a night to themselves at the estate; Ashley promised that she and Gregory could look after James until morning.

"Goodnight, darling," Helen whispered to her halfway-asleep son before handing him to Ashley so that the blonde could take him down the hall and put him to bed.

James made a little sound and closed his eyes, snuggling against his sister. Ashley smiled at their mother. "Night, Mom."

"Thank you for doing this."

"It's no problem. See you in the morning."

Helen sighed contentedly as she shut the door behind her daughter. "I've half a mind to ask you to pinch me," she told John, who was standing beside their dresser, undoing the buttons on his shirt.

He laughed. "Do you think that you're dreaming?"

"I'm afraid of it," she replied.

"Well, if you were simply dreaming, wouldn't you prefer not to know?"

"True," Helen agreed as she sat down at her dresser and began removing her jewelry and freeing her hair. "I wish that my father could stay here longer," she commented. "I feel like I'm forever saying goodbye to him."

"Perhaps he'll return once his current project with the London Sanctuary is complete?"

"Maybe…I think that I'll be hard pressed to keep him in one location for any stretch of time."

John smiled. Gregory DID like to wander. He'd been going from one project – and continent – to the next since he'd come back into his daughter's life. "Speak to him about it in the morning. Surely he wouldn't mind spending more time with his grandchildren."

"No, I'd imagine not," Helen agreed as she put down her hairbrush and turned around to face him. "I really don't like having Nikola in my house without knowing why he's here," she switched topics.

"Nor do I. However, I think he can be dealt with tomorrow. Tonight, we have other concerns."

She got up, a little grin on her face. "Oh, really? Like what?"

John stepped over and turned her around so that her back was to him. He gently slid one of the straps from her dress down over her shoulder and laid a kiss on the skin that he'd exposed. "Things like how quickly I can get you out of this gown and into our bed," he whispered to her.

Helen smiled. "Less talking, more undressing."

* * *

After James was put to bed and things were mostly cleaned up in the main library, Ashley slipped away to the roof. It had been a very busy day, and she had a lot to think about.

She wasn't quite sure whether she should be thinking of this day as an ending or a beginning – or maybe a little of both. There was some childish part of her that hoped this whole family thing would be the stuff of fairy tales, but she knew that was unlikely given the realities of their world. She couldn't really picture Helen making perfect family dinners or John playing t-ball with James. However, they'd all grown pretty comfortable with each other over the past few months, so she was kind of wondering how much 'making it official' would really change anything.

Recently, she'd been spending a lot of time thinking about an idea that she hadn't shared with anyone – not her mother, or Henry, or even Will who was sworn to secrecy by doctor-patient privilege. Ashley was intrigued by the notion that she should have been born nearly a hundred years before she actually was. She didn't really wish that her mother had allowed her to be born in the late 19th century, but she couldn't help but wonder what that life might have been like. What if her father hadn't been a serial killer and they'd all been a family together in England? What would she have done with her life? There likely wouldn't be such a large age gap between her and her brother. And maybe they'd have more siblings.

There were other possibilities to consider, too. What if her mother had decided decades earlier that the loneliness of her lifestyle was too much to bear? Ashley could have been a child of the 30s or 50s. What if Helen had waited even longer? It almost felt like she was a timetraveler.

"Is this a private party?" a voice broke into her thoughts. Ashley turned around to see that Tesla had also found his way up to the roof.

"Um, no," she replied, a little wary of the newcomer.

Nikola smiled has he leaned against the wall beside her. "Interesting day, hmm?"

"Yeah."

"Although I guess you've had a lot of interesting days in the past year or so, haven't you?" Ashley didn't respond. "I don't think I've ever heard you this quiet before," he told her with a laugh.

"I'm not sure if I remember who you are," she shot back. "I mean, I know your name and I know you've worked with my mother, but…"

"But what?"

"I don't know why everyone in the Sanctuary is watching you like a bomb that could go off at any moment."

Nikola laughed. "Your mother has always been paranoid."

Ashley didn't buy that. "Never without good reason."

"Really, why would she need to fear little old me?" And before Ashley could utter one syllable in response, he stuck a needle in her arm and quickly pressed the plunger. She tried to push him away, but quickly succumbed to unconsciousness.

* * *

Later that night, John and Helen laid in each other's arms and watched the stars through her open window. "If we could go anywhere tonight," he whispered to her, "Where would you want to go?"

"What?"

"Just for a night. If I could take you anyplace in the world…"

She smiled slightly. "You would have me home by morning?"

"Cross my heart," he promised.

"Mmm…Lake Tekapo."

"New Zealand?"

Helen nodded. "Beautiful mountains and forests. I was in the area for my work some years ago and always wanted to go back, but haven't had the opportunity. I'm sure we could find a quiet spot to watch the sunrise…"

"I believe it's nearly sunset by now down there," he pointed out.

Helen shot him a look of mock annoyance. "It's my fantasy; it can be any time I want it to be."

John simply nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"Where were you thinking of going?"

"I was considering Venice."

She smiled. "Of course."

"Mmm, cliché, I know, but I have an image in my head of you lounging on a gondola as we sail down the canals."

"And it's daytime now in Italy."

"Even if it weren't," John impishly replied, "It's my fantasy."

Helen turned over to face him, and ran a gentle hand along his cheek. "I'm sorry, John."

"For what?"

"For the fact that we can only fantasize. I wish very much that we could go to New Zealand or Italy or both, but the risk is too great."

He slowly nodded. "I know."

They hadn't talked very much recently about him giving up his abilities, but Helen knew it was still something he struggled with. "I know this is hard for you," she promised, "But I'm so grateful that you've given us this chance at a future."

He'd be lying if he said that he didn't hate it every day, but there was no reason to make her feel worse. He was eternally thankful that she'd been able to put their horrific past behind them and give him another chance; he'd spend his life doing anything he could to repay the favor. "I'd do anything for you, my love," he whispered as he held her close.

* * *

In the morning, Helen woke up first and went to get James. The baby was already awake and sitting up in his crib, quietly waiting for her. "Thank you, darling, for letting your Mum and Dad sleep in a little bit," she told her son as she picked him up. "You're probably hungry, hmm? Let's go get your sister and make some breakfast for everyone."

When she went down the hall, she was surprised to find that Ashley's door was open and the room was empty. Her daughter had never been a morning person, so it was almost unheard of for her to be awake before Helen. "She's probably already in the kitchen," she told James before heading for the steps.

But she wasn't. Will was the only person downstairs, nursing a cup of coffee while reading through a file. "Have you seen Ashley?" Helen asked her protégé.

"No, I haven't. She's awake already?" he inquired, surprised.

"Apparently so; she's not in her room."

"Huh…Her bike was still in the garage when I went for a run this morning; she's gotta be here somewhere, right?"

"Hey, Doc," Henry said as he joined them, "Looks like our favorite houseguest decided not to stay the night."

She frowned. "Nikola's gone?"

"Yeah, I walked by his room on my way down here. He was nowhere to be seen and it doesn't look like he used the bed."

Helen felt a little cold. "Will, can you please give James his breakfast?" she asked as she handed him the baby.

"Sure, but what's going on?"

"I need you to check the security logs from last night," she told Henry. "I have a very bad feeling about this.".

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Nikola always has to make things interesting, right? As always, thanks for the feedback!  
**


	5. Chapter 5

Ashley slowly opened her eyes to the sight of cold, concrete walls and fluorescent lights hanging from the ceiling. As she tried to sit up, she found that her arms, legs, and head were restrained against the bed that she was lying on. Struggling against the straps did no good.

"Ah, Sleeping Beauty awakens," a voice said. She turned – as much as she could – to see Nikola standing across the room with a tray of food in his hands. She also noticed the computers and medical equipment that was sitting around her. A few electrical leads ran from her body to various monitors.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Just a little experiment."

She tried again without success to get out of her restraints. "Where are we?"

He smiled. "Somewhere safe…and secluded. We don't want any interruptions, do we?"

Ashley glared. "You're crazy."

Nikola tsked. "Now, now, no need to get nasty. Are you hungry?" he set down the tray on a stand near her bed.

"Like you care," she retorted.

"Of course I do – you're my guest." He picked up a slice of toast with jam from the plate and held it in front of her face.

"Do you really believe I'm that stupid?"

He laughed. "You think I'm trying to poison you? Well, once fooled, twice shy, I suppose. Have no fear, dear girl. I already have you exactly where I want you. It serves neither of us if you starve." Still, she refused to take a bite. Nikola just shrugged and put the toast back.

"So if I'm your guest, then that would mean that I'm free to leave whenever I want, huh?" Ashley asked, and received a grim smile in return.

"Not yet."

"What the hell do you want?"

"You."

Ashley's eyebrows shot up. "What?"

"YOU are precisely what I want," he carefully said, as though speaking to a slow child. "You have no idea how excited I was when I found out that you'd survived your suicidal attempt to teleport out of the Sanctuary. After everything that the Cabal did to you… you are my holy grail."

She frowned, confused. "I thought you helped my mom try to get me back from the Cabal?"

"Oh, I did," he assured her. "They had absolutely no idea how to properly use the treasure that they had created. You aren't meant for destruction – your purpose now is recreation."

"Recreation of what?"

"My race. Or, should I say, OUR race, now. You, my dear, have taken Sanguine Vampiris to a level that I didn't even dare to dream of."

Ashley was getting very, very concerned. "I don't have any of those abilities anymore," she tried to protest, but Nikola shook his head.

"Of course you do. Your DNA is still the same; you just don't have active control. Once I've remedied that, along with a few other things, I can use you as a template for a new generation." He stepped towards the bed, and Ashley did her best to move away from him when she realized that he had a syringe in his hand. However, there was nowhere for her to go.

"No, stop!" she cried as he pushed the needle into her arm and emptied its contents. Almost instantly, she started to feel like her blood was burning. "What is that?" she asked as the sensation began to spread through her body.

Nikola just smiled. "You should get some rest. We have a great deal of work ahead of us." He started to leave the room, but turned back. "Oh. And once you remember how, I'd recommend that you not try teleporting away. I've recreated your mother's favorite invention – an EM shield."

* * *

Back at the Sanctuary, everyone gathered in Henry's lab. He had pulled together all of the security footage in the mansion from the previous night and had multiple videos cued up and waiting on one of his computer screens.

"I found what you wanted," he quietly told Helen as she came to stand behind him. John was next to her, while Will and Big Guy were on Henry's other side.

"Go ahead," Helen told him, and Henry started the first clip. It showed one of the hallways in the upper levels of the house. At the end of the hall was the stairwell that led up to the roof. Everything was empty and quiet for a few moments, but then Tesla appeared at the bottom of the stairs, carrying an unconscious Ashley over his shoulder. Helen's heart immediately sank to her toes. Some part of her had been hoping that her instincts were wrong, but she'd known the truth all along. Her old friend had done the unthinkable.

Henry cued up another of the videos, which showed Nikola making his way through little-used corridors of the house, heading downstairs. "What time was this?" John asked.

"Uh, about midnight," Henry replied after checking on his second computer screen.

"And no one saw them?" he inquired, his voice strained with barely-controlled anger.

"There were a couple near-misses," the tech genius admitted. On the screen, they could see Nikola suddenly stop walking and go back around a corner. The Big Guy walked into the frame a few moments later, but didn't notice them as he continued on his way. Helen could hear him softly growl in shame as they watched.

A third video showed that Nikola had made it down to the garage, still undetected. He opened the door and disappeared outside. From a fourth video, which was taken from an external camera, they could see that a dark SUV was waiting out on the road. After Nikola and Ashley were inside, the vehicle sped away.

"Why didn't the door alarms go off?" Helen asked.

Henry flushed slightly at the failure of one of his responsibilities. "Um… the best I can figure is that he used his abilities. I checked the system and everything's still functional. The door sensors are just electrical circuits, though – with the doors shut, the circuit is complete and current flows. When you open the door, you break that circuit and the alarm goes off."

She nodded. "And all Nikola had to do was keep power flowing between the connectors. I knew I shouldn't have let him stay; I knew he had to have an ulterior motive…" She trailed off; berating herself was something that could – and would – be done in private later on. Right now, they had to figure out how to fix this.

"Did we get anything on that SUV?" Will asked. Henry hit a few keys on his keyboard and brought up a fifth video, which had come from another external camera.

"There are no plates. I can't even tell for sure if its dark blue or black. Only thing we know is that it's a Lincoln Navigator."

"So basically, we know nothing," Will muttered under his breath. Henry didn't answer.

"We need to find them, now," John stated. "I know some of the places where Nikola liked to hide. We should start searching, track any lead we can."

Henry nodded. "I'll go start getting gear ready for all of us."

"No," Helen spoke up, and everyone spun to look at her.

"What?" John asked.

She turned and looked him straight in the eye. "Tell Henry where the locations are. We'll go check them out, but you're not coming with us, John."

* * *

TBC...


	6. Chapter 6

"Tell Henry where the locations are," Helen requested. "We'll go check them out, but you're not coming with us."

John's eyes flashed with rage; Helen was the only one who stood her ground without flinching as everyone else fought the urge to take a step back away from him. "What do you mean I'm not going with you?" he asked, his voice perilously low and even. "She's my daughter, too! I may not have raised her, but that makes her no less my responsibility!"

"I know that," Helen evenly replied., "But I think the risk is too great." Over the past several months, he'd only participated in a couple missions with her team, ones that had little threat of danger and benefited from his tracking skills. But this… this mess was likely going to end in a nasty battle, and she knew that old habits die hard.

Henry and Will both looked extremely uncomfortable; they knew that this was probably a conversation that they shouldn't be present for. "Uh, boss?" Henry quietly said as a request for permission to leave.

Helen understood and nodded. "Go," she told him. Both of them and the Big Guy beat a hasty retreat. She steeled herself for the explosion that she knew was coming now that she and John were alone. And she wasn't disappointed.

"I'm not a child!" he roared as soon as the door closed. "I don't need you to monitor every single thing that I do!"

"It's not that I don't trust you – " Helen started.

"Really? Because that's exactly what it sounds like! Have you stopped to consider the possibility that you may NEED my ability when you do find Nikola?"

She nodded. "I have. That's exactly why I can't let you to come along. Do you honestly think that you would be able to restrict yourself if you knew that others were at risk? I can't fault you for that instinct, but I also can't have you on the team."

"And what if something happens to you because I'm not there?" he shot back.

"What if something happens to YOU because you are?" she quietly replied. John didn't have an answer for that. "Do you think that I enjoy this? Of course I want you with me! Of course I think that you could be of use. But… we had a deal, John. I'm trying to help you keep it. I'm trying to keep you with me." He couldn't look at her, but slowly nodded. "Follow me."

"What?"

Helen took his hand. "Come on."

* * *

She led him upstairs into the main part of the house. Gregory was with James in his nursery, reading a book to his grandson. "What's going on?" he asked his daughter, sensing their tension.

"Father, can you go down to the lab and help the others?" she asked.

"After you tell me what's wrong," he smartly replied.

Helen wasn't in the mood to deal with him, too. "Father, please," she asked again. Gregory held her look for a moment, but finally acquiesced. She would explain to him what was happening later on – or someone from her staff would tell him when he got downstairs. He handed James to his mother and left the room.

Helen turned to John. "Look at him," she told her husband, indicating their son. "Look at him and tell me that you have to come along."

He sighed. "That's low, Helen."

"But you know that I'm right."

John wasn't willing to give up that easily. "It's our daughter – "

"And this is our son. He needs you, too. He needs to have a future with you. We are going to find Ashley, and I am asking you to please stay here. For me, for her, and for James." He finally nodded.

* * *

Ashley was reliving her worst nightmare.

The first syringe had been followed by a second and then an IV providing a constant stream of drugs into her body. She wasn't sure how long it had been since she awakened – maybe a day? Two days? She had no way to tell, but it felt like an eternity. The drugs and electro-shocks were turning her into someone – something – that she'd never wanted to be again.

Her senses were overloaded and her nerves were frayed. Every sound was louder, every detail of her surroundings was clearer, every scent was stronger. Her blood still burned as it ran through her body and her head was pounding. All of those sensations made Nikola's question as he came in the room even more irritating.

"How are we feeling?" he asked with a cheerful smile as he approached the bed. Ashley turned to him with a glare and a growl that she just couldn't seem to suppress. The reaction caused a sharp pain on her lower lip, and she was surprised to find blood when she ran her tongue over the spot. Her teeth were razor sharp – her vampiric traits were no longer dormant.

Nikola smiled when he noticed. "Most excellent," he declared. "Progress. Not much longer now."

* * *

The list of locations that Helen received from John included places on four continents. They had started with the ones in North America first, and planned to expand the search after they got through those. The team had no success with an old bunker in the New Mexico desert, a warehouse in Chicago, or an abandoned farm in Tennessee.

"Are we set?" Helen asked as they formed up outside of their next stop, a condemned factory in Miami. Will nodded. They split up into pairs: Will + Henry, and Helen + Big Guy. After carefully making their way around the building for a little recon, they stormed in.

And found absolutely nothing.

Helen sighed as she looked around the dusty, dilapidated main room. Of all the experiences that she'd had during her very long life, this was right at the top of the list of ones that she'd never wanted to repeat. Desperately searching for her child, praying that she wouldn't be too late… it was too much. And instead of having a known enemy as the one turning her life upside down, it was someone that she'd trusted. A betrayal that she should have seen coming. What the hell had ever made her think that she was capable of being responsible for another human being?

"Hey, Boss?" a voice asked, and she turned to see that Henry was now standing beside her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she curtly replied.

"We're going to find her," he softly promised. Helen held his look for a long moment, appearing to be on the edge of crumbling. But then she turned away and the steel walls came back up.

"Let's get back to the jet," she ordered before heading toward the door. The three men all exchanged looks before following.

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Anybody else counting the days to the S3.5 premiere?**


	7. Chapter 7

John came down the stairs in the Sanctuary, holding his son. James squawked when he saw one of the mansion's residents pass by. Two-Faced Guy's nice side smiled at the little boy.

"Hey, there, Junior. How's it going?"

"I think he misses his mother," John told him. Helen and the rest of the team had been gone for over a week. He couldn't think of another instance during his son's short life that she'd been away from him so long.

"I bet he's not the only one," Two-Faced Guy commented with a smirk as he continued down the hall. His mean side growled at them as he passed. James giggled and clapped.

John just shook his head. "I will never understand how you arrived at the conclusion that the meanest beasties in this place are your playmates," he quietly told his son.

It had been a very lonely week. Gregory had picked up most of the work around the Sanctuary, and John helped as needed, but it was still extremely difficult to sit on the sidelines. Helen had been good about checking in nightly with their progress (or lack thereof), which had helped to keep his imagination in check. He couldn't help but worry about her, though. And wonder if things would be different if he was with them.

Gregory approached his son-in-law. "The van just pulled in," he reported. John followed him through the hallways to the main garage. Helen, Henry, Will, and the Big Guy were unloading their gear from the back of the van. James immediately started making noise when he noticed his mother. Helen forced a smile and came over to take her son from his father.

"Hello, luv. Did you miss me?" she asked before kissing the top of his head.

"Almost as much as I did," John softly told her. Helen held his look for a long moment, but didn't reply. "I take it there were no good leads?"

She shook her head. "We all know Nikola can be good at hiding when he wants to be," she said as she handed James back and turned to get her bag. "I need to get down to the lab. Can you three handle getting everything put away?" she asked her team.

Henry and Will both started to say something, but she didn't give them a chance. After slinging her bag over her shoulder, she headed into the mansion. All of the men that she'd left behind just looked at each other.

"It's been a rough trip," Will offered up as an explanation. "I can try to talk to her, but…"

John nodded. "Thank you." The younger man nodded and also went inside.

* * *

In Nikola's lab, he was running a last few tests, now that his procedures had worked. He smiled at Ashley as he finished setting up the computers and came over to inject something into her IV.

"Take a nap," he suggested. "Once these scans are finished, we can start working on how to spread my success to the masses." With a final smirk, he left the room.

Ashley threw her head back in frustration. There had to be some way to stop this. She concentrated on summoning all of her strength to fight against the restraints that immobilized her arms. The metal cuffs were welded to the bed and locked closed; she'd spent hours over the last few days struggling with them in vain. But her efforts were finally about to pay off.

She heard the metal groan slightly before the lock on her right hand finally failed. Her claws were already extended, and she used them to sever the lock holding her left hand, and then repeated the process for the brace on her forehead and the cuffs on her ankles. Apparently her new strength had surpassed Nikola's expectations. He'd certainly overestimated how long it would take her enhanced body to metabolize the sedatives he'd been giving her.

Ashley got out of bed and looked toward the door. She didn't know what she would find on the other side, how difficult it would be to escape the facility. More important than getting out, however, was stopping Nikola's research. She grabbed the computer on the desk and used her strength to rip off the side of the metal case. Every component inside quickly got crushed; she didn't even pay attention to the sparks that flew from the box. However, an alarm quickly started to blare.

Ashley turned toward the door, but before she could take two steps in that direction, the door banged open, revealing Nikola. "Decided against the nap, huh?" he asked before going full vampire.

"I stopped taking them before Kindergarten," she shot back.

A vampire-vs-vampire battle quickly began. Each would occasionally land a sold punch or a brutal slash of claws. Ashley's healing ability was better, but Nikola could definitely hold his own. The fight seemed endless, with neither of them really able to get an upper hand.

Nikola finally grabbed one of the cables that had run to the computer equipment and used it to send a scathing blast of electricity in her direction. Ashley was able to redirect it at first, but he was far more adept at using that particular ability than she was. Eventually, he managed to break through her defenses. She staggered back away, trying to force her breathing back to normal.

"Did you really think that you could beat me?" Nikola asked.

"Your data's gone," she pointed out.

He shrugged. "I'll start the tests again. You're not going anywhere." He shot another blast of electricity at her, but Ashley managed to duck it and scrambled behind a pillar.

She had very little time to make a decision, and it was perhaps the most important of her life. There was no way she could get to the door, and no way she would let him continue his 'research.' That only left her one option, which she was pretty certain Tesla believed she'd never chose. She had to teleport, despite the shield. At least that way no one would ever be able to use her again. Ashley knew that her death would destroy her mother – again – but there was no way she could live with the aftermath of Tesla's experiments.

"Is this futile rebellion over yet?" Nikola asked, and Ashley knew what she had to do. She closed her eyes and spared just a second to prepare herself for what was to come – a flash of light and heat as her body was converted to pure energy, then nothingness.

Her last thought before disappearing in a swirl of red energy was of home and her family. _I'm sorry, Mom… _She welcomed the dark emptiness that surrounded her, knowing that at least now she and everyone she loved would be safe.

An instant later, however, there was another flash of warmth and brightness as her body rematerialized. Ashley opened her eyes and stared in shock to see that she was standing in the main lab of the Old City Sanctuary.

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Thanks for the feedback I've received so far! I always like to hear what people think or ideas they have.**


	8. Chapter 8

Helen and Will were talking in the main lab when they heard the unmistakable sound of someone teleporting into the room. Both of them stared in shock for a long moment when they realized who that person was.

"Ashley?" Helen asked as her paralysis was finally broken. The blonde seemed just as surprised to see them – and her surroundings – as they were to see her. The fact that her eyes were glowing gold and she had fangs on display had her mother deeply concerned. "What happened?"

As soon as Helen took a step toward her, Ashley jumped back. "Stay away!" she warned, her eyes wide and wild. "Please stay away. I don't want to hurt you." She felt like she was about to come out of her skin, like she was clinging by her fingernails to having control over her own body. She was so confused and completely terrified and really wished that all of this had just been a nightmare.

Helen held up her hands to placate her daughter. "Okay, darling. Everything's going to be all right. You're home, now, where you belong."

It seemed as though that was both the good news and the bad news. She wasn't supposed to be here; she was so certain that she wasn't going to end up here. And it was all just too much for her to bear. "I'm sorry, Mom. I'm so sorry!"

The doctor had no idea why she was apologizing, but that didn't really matter at the moment. "It's okay, luv," she automatically assured her. "You're safe now."

Ashley shook her head. "No, no, I'm not. Please, Mom, you have to make sure I don't hurt anyone! Put me to sleep – do whatever you have to – just make sure I don't hurt anybody!"

It was just like that horrible night all over again, the night that Ashley had 'died'. She was fighting between being herself and being something terrible and there was no way of knowing how much time was left before she lost the battle. "We're going to take care of you," Helen promised as her own eyes started to fill with tears. "You trust me, don't you, Ashley?"

She didn't answer and simply eyed her mother carefully, like a cornered animal that was wary of being tricked. Were they losing her already? Helen couldn't let that happen. She slowly, carefully walked over to the bag that had been dropped beside the table. Inside was a stun gun, which she pulled out and started to aim. However, the sight of the weapon triggered an automatic defensive response and Ashley lunged for her. Before she could strike her mother, however, she was hit by a blast from another weapon and crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Helen looked up to see that Will was holding a stunner in slightly trembling hands. She wasn't sure how he'd managed to get it without Ashley noticing, but decided that it wasn't worth worrying about. "Thank you," she told him, and he nodded a little in response. "Can you please help me get her to the infirmary?"

* * *

Once they got Ashley upstairs, Helen took her to run several scans. After those were complete, she left Gregory to monitor his granddaughter's condition while she headed back to the lab to analyze the results. It was obvious that all of the abilities the Cabal had given her were now completely active, and Helen had a pretty good theory on how that had happened and what Nikola was trying to do. The idea made her blood boil.

Late that night, when Henry came down to the lab holding a tray of food, he found his boss still hard at work and completely engrossed in reading whatever was on her computer screen. "Hey, Doc," he said as he put the tray down on a table. Helen jumped slightly at the sound of his voice. "Sorry."

"It's all right. I didn't hear you come in," she told him.

"Yeah, I figured… I brought you some dinner."

"I'm not hungry," she replied as she turned back to her work.

"You gotta eat, Doc," he quietly said. Helen looked up and held his gaze for a long moment. How many times over the years had he been there to take care of her – to make sure that she took care of herself? She finally nodded.

"Thank you," Helen told him as he handed her the plate.

"No problem… Anything new?"

She shook her head with a sigh. "I've been trying to figure out a way to make Ashley's abilities dormant again."

"No luck?"

"No. Frankly, I don't understand why they went dormant before. Obviously, her regenerative powers stayed active or she would have died after she got through the EM shield, but she was never able to teleport at will."

"Or pop out fangs and claws?" Henry added.

Helen raised an eyebrow. "Mmm, yes. I'm starting to wonder if somehow, while she was healing herself, she subconsciously blocked her own access to those abilities."

"Does that help you come up with a plan for how to help her now?"

"Unfortunately, no. All of her abilities have been thrown into overdrive now due to more modifications to her DNA."

Henry sighed. Ashley had been so close to getting her life back to 'normal' before all this happened. And now…who would she be when she woke up? "Do you know what kind of modifications?"

"It looks like she's been injected with more of the Source Blood, though not pure. After everything she's been through, I'm afraid the last thing she needs is someone playing with her genetic code yet again. It's a miracle that she's survived what's been done to her so far."

Henry nodded slightly. In his lifetime, he'd seen a couple abnormals show up at the Sanctuary on death's doorstep because they'd been suckered into trying some kind of treatment to allow them to become 'normal.' Those kinds of cases never had happy endings. He didn't want to imagine something like that happening to Ashley. "Where'd the Source Blood come from?" he wondered. "I thought it was never recovered after the Cabal were taken down?"

"From my analyses, it didn't come from the original supply. It matches what I have on file for Nikola." She said his name as though it tasted sour. She'd been doing her very best not to think about him, because she knew it would only limit her productivity. Ashley was her concern for right now; Nikola… he could be dealt with later.

Henry's eyes hardened. Just when they thought that the vampiric scientist couldn't go any lower… "Hey, Doc? What's the plan for Tesla?"

"I don't have one at the moment," she replied without looking up.

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

"We all know what he's trying to do. Someone has to do something about him."

"I agree – Where would you start looking for him?"

That stopped him quick. "What?"

"I assume that you're asking because you wanted to be involved in whatever you thought I had planned?"

"Well, yeah," he replied with a nod. "I owe Ashley that."

"Right now, we have no clue where he is, and won't know until Ashley is awake. And even then, the likelihood that he is still at whatever location he took her to is low." Her tech expert seemed thoroughly upset by that idea. "I have no doubt that we will find him, Henry, but right now I'm choosing to expend my efforts in areas where they can actually make a difference."

"Yeah…"

Both of them looked up as John entered the lab. Helen noticed that he seemed somewhat shaken and his face was very pale. "What's wrong?" she asked as she stood up. "Is it Ashley?"

John shook his head. "No, it's me. I think you need to run a scan of my head."

Helen frowned. "Why?"

His eyes were focused anywhere but on her. "I…I have been feeling strangely," he softly admitted, obviously struggling with the words. "I think I'm relapsing."

* * *

TBC...


	9. Chapter 9

Helen felt as cold as ice during the walk to the infirmary, and her heart was racing. She and John didn't say a single word to each other as she set up the scanner and he laid down on the bed. Silence reigned while the machine worked away and Helen sat at the computer to view the results. When the scanner finished, John sat up and watched his wife for a moment. She was staring at the screen before her in barely-concealed horror and he knew that he'd been right.

"I have not broken my promise to you," he quietly told her as he got up and joined her.

She finally looked up at him, a mix of shock, disbelief, and anger on her face. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Explain this, then, John."

He shook his head, completely at a loss. "I don't know."

That wasn't good enough. She needed an answer. She needed to know why their world was coming apart at every single seam. A century earlier, she'd been stunned and dismayed to realize that the man who knew her better than herself, the man that she'd shared her bed with, and the man who had fathered her first child was a complete and total stranger. More than that, he was a monster. She'd promised herself that she'd never let him catch her unawares like that again, a promise that had been broken a few months earlier when he hid his last relapse from her. But this…this was completely different. She'd dared to give him her heart one more time and it was about to be shattered again.

"You haven't teleported, not even once?" she couldn't help but ask, needing to be sure.

"No," he easily replied. And she wanted to believe him, but wasn't sure if she could. Helen felt that she was rather poor at detecting when John was lying to her. If he wasn't being truthful, then they had serious problems with their relationship. But if he wasn't deceiving her… then they truly had problems.

"I don't understand this."

"Neither do I," John assured her.

She turned back to the computer screen and opened his medical files. Was it possible that she'd been wrong all these years, that teleportation somehow wasn't the cause of all of John's problems? The thought made her feel physically ill.

"How bad is it?" he softly asked, interrupting her thoughts.

She refused to look at him. "Worse than the last time, but the damage could still be far greater."

"So I'm not a danger to you? Not yet, at least." John noticed that she blanched slightly at those words, but he fought the urge to offer comfort by putting his hand on hers. He didn't feel that he still had that right.

"No," she quietly replied. "Not yet." But he would be. There was apparently absolutely nothing that she could do to prevent it.

"You can't take the chance that I'll do something that cannot be taken back."

His calm acceptance threatened Helen's composure. Her husband was capable of unspeakable brutality and she apparently had been eternally cursed with the responsibility of looking after him. Just at the time that she needed him most, she wasn't able to lean on him. "I know," she finally replied.

* * *

Helen wanted to do more tests, to try to determine what she'd missed about his condition a century earlier. She called Will down to the infirmary level while the scans were running.

"You needed to see me?" the psychiatrist asked as he entered the room.

Helen's eyes widened when she saw the bruise on his face. "What happened?" she asked as she got up to inspect the mark.

Will shied away from her fingers. "It's nothing," he tried to tell her.

"It's obviously not nothing!" His lower lip was cut and the skin by his mouth was mottled purple and swollen. "How did this happen?"

He sighed. "I ran into a door."

Helen narrowed her eyes. "William Zimmerman, don't you dare lie to me."

"Okay, okay. With everything that's been going on, I can understand that your husband's a little irritable. I apparently was the easiest target for him to take out some of his frustrations on."

Her mouth fell open slightly. "John hit you?"

"Yeah. I said something stupid… it doesn't matter. He apologized and I'm gonna put more ice on it once we're done. So what's up?"

Helen looked through the window into the room where John lay on the scanner. She'd spent the past hour wrestling with whether she was making the right decision, but the fact that John had already been violent made the choice for her. "It wasn't nothing," she quietly told her protégé.

Will followed her gaze and frowned when he realized who his boss' current patient was. "What's going on?"

"He's relapsing."

"What?"

"I don't understand it any better than you do. But until I can figure something out, I can't let him hurt anyone else. I need you to get a unit prepared for him in the S.H.U."

Will held her look for a moment. "Are you sure?" he couldn't help but ask.

"No," she quietly replied. "But I have to do it anyway."

* * *

The fact that John completely understood what she had to do didn't make it any easier. They both were fully aware that nothing good laid ahead on this path. Helen was unnerved by how at peace John seemed about it.

Once her tests were complete, he followed her through the estate to the special section used to house the Sanctuary's most dangerous residents. "There are blankets and pillows and things," she told him, pointing to where the objects were sitting on the bed inside. "I'll bring your breakfast in the morning, and if you need anything, use the intercom."

He simply nodded. "Thank you."

She scoffed. "What are you thanking me for?"

"Doing what you have to in order to ensure that everyone is safe." Helen didn't trust herself enough to respond to that. She started to leave but John's voice stopped her. "Will you do something for me?" he asked.

"What?"

John smiled slightly, serenely. "Kiss our son and tell him I love him."

Helen set her jaw to keep from breaking down. This wasn't the time or place. She nodded once before turning and walking out the door. After setting the lock, she couldn't help but look through the small window. John was sitting on the edge of the bed and looking down at his hands, which were folded in his lap. Totally calm and accepting.

She quickly walked away before she changed her mind about leaving him there.

* * *

Upstairs in the area of the house set aside for living quarters, she found that the Big Guy was in her room, setting out a tray with tea. "Thank you, old friend," she told him as she tried to muster up a small smile.

"It's chamomile," he informed her. "Is there anything new?"

Helen had checked in with her father before going upstairs and knew that nothing had changed with Ashley's condition. Plenty else had happened that evening, but she really didn't feel like talking about John. Frankly, Helen didn't feel like talking about anything. She just wanted it all to go away. "No," was all she finally said, and the Big Guy nodded.

"Good night."

"You, too." She took a sip of her tea, letting the steam try to warm her. It didn't help; she still felt unbearably chilled.

Helen walked down the hall toward the next room and quietly opened the door. James was sound asleep in his crib, holding his stuffed dog. She stood there for a long moment, just watching him breathe. Watching him prove that he was still there with her.

A week ago, she'd had everything. She had dared to dream about a bright future with her family. Now, she was living a nightmare, possibly losing both her husband and her daughter and feeling unusually powerless to do anything about it.

Slowly, carefully, Helen put her teacup down on the dresser and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. Her tears trickled down her cheeks one by one at first, then started to flow faster and she covered her face with her hands to muffle her sobs.

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: Questions/comments/suggestions? Hit the button!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: This took a little longer **** to get up ****than I was intending - sorry! Thank you so much for being patient. The next few chapters probably won't be coming much faster. Things at work will (hopefully) get busy this weekend with a successful Shuttle launch, but I'll try to get a couple more chapters up in the next week.**

* * *

When Ashley's eyes fluttered open, she was initially confused as to where she was and what had happened. "Hello, there," she heard a voice say and turned to see Helen standing beside her. "How are you feeling?"

"I-I'm not sure…" she stuttered. Sunlight was pouring through the windows beside her, illuminating the infirmary room that she was currently lying in. _How did I get in the infirmary?_ "What happened?"

"You teleported into the main lab. Do you remember?"

She struggled for a moment to make sense of her memories. Helen saw her daughter's eyes widen when the pieces all began to come together. "Mom, tell me I didn't – Did I do anything? Did I hurt anyone?"

She shook her head as she reached to take Ashley's hand. "Everyone's fine. Nothing happened."

Ashley eyed her skeptically. "You promise?"

"I do. We were all so worried about you."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't be sorry, luv. It's not your fault."

More memories started to trickle back. "What did he do to me?"

Helen sighed. "Nikola injected you with a serum based on his blood. In essence, it was another dose of Source Blood, which put your abilities in overdrive."

Ashley considered that. "But you fixed me, right?"

She slowly shook her head. "No, darling."

"You mean… I'm still whatever kind of freak the Cabal made me?" Panic had started to creep into her voice. "Why did you wake me up? What if I do something?"

"Nikola was also giving you psychotropic drugs that reduced your control over your abilities. It's been 48 hours and those drugs are out of your system now, which is why I felt it was safe to awaken you. I don't know how to make your abilities dormant again without modifying your DNA – "

"So do it!" she interrupted. Surely she couldn't stay like this; it was far too dangerous.

Helen held her daughter's look for a long moment. "It's a miracle that you're still alive after everything and…I can't take a chance with that, luv. I can't lose you again."

Ashley found herself needing to blink back tears as she recalled what she'd been trying to do when she arrived in her mother's laboratory. She'd known that her death would affect Helen profoundly, but now that they were reunited, the idea of hurting her mother again so badly was like a knife in her chest.

The doctor frowned as she saw her daughter's eyes spill over. "What is it?" she quietly asked, brushing away Ashley's tears.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I'm really sorry!"

"Sorry for what?"

"He told me… he told me he had an EM shield. And I knew what would happen if I teleported, but I was so scared. I was terrified of what he was going to do with me, what others would do as a result. I'm so dangerous, even if I'm not trying to be. People can use who I am as a weapon!"

Helen sighed. She'd wondered how her daughter had gotten away, and – if it was as simple as teleporting – why she hadn't done it sooner. She'd almost been afraid of the answer. "We are going to figure things out together, luv," she tried to reassure her. "Everything is going to be all right."

Ashley seemed understandably skeptical. "I know what you went through before, and I didn't want you to lose me again, but… I was scared."

Helen held her. "I know. I'm sorry that I let you get put in that situation, again."

"It's not your fault."

"Parents are supposed to protect their children."

That statement made Ashley realize that the two of them were alone in the room. "Speaking of parents, where's John?" She would have expected that both of them would be waiting for her to awaken.

Helen looked down. Considering everything that Ashley had to deal with at the moment, she didn't think adding more to her daughter's plate was necessary. "He's in the house," she finally said, which wasn't a lie even if it wasn't the whole truth.

Ashley frowned slightly. "Is everything okay? Is it something with James?"

"James is fine. You should get some rest, all right? Your body's been through a lot. I'll check in on you in a little bit."

* * *

After leaving the infirmary, Helen headed to the Sanctuary's lower levels. John looked up as he saw her approach his cell in the SHU. She tapped the keypad beside the door and stepped inside once it unlocked. John stood to greet her, but Helen didn't come further than two steps into the room.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I thought you should know that Ashley is awake."

That WAS welcome news, and he was thankful that she'd decided to share it. "Is she all right?"

Helen sighed lightly. "That depends on your definition of 'all right'. Physically, yes, she seems fine, although she'll have a great deal to adjust to. Psychologically…"

John slowly nodded. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you."

Helen held his look for a long moment. "I know," she finally said.

He dared to take a few steps closer to her, and was encouraged when she didn't back away. "What did you tell her?"

"About you? Nothing. I didn't see a reason to add to her worries, not yet. There are enough unpleasant things I'm going to have to tell her."

He frowned. "Like what?"

"I've made progress in my analyses of what exactly the Cabal and Nikola have done to her. We already knew about her vampiric traits, teleportation, and ability to manipulate electricity. These are now no longer dormant."

"Did she gain invisibility?"

"I don't believe so. The Cabal were never interested in it – why hide when you have that much power? Nikola never had the ability, so his injection wouldn't have triggered it. But her regenerative abilities have now been enhanced, whether it was intentional or not. In addition to repairing injuries, her cells are now continually being maintained in their current state."

John's eyes widened. "Your longevity."

Helen nodded, though she couldn't look at him. "It would appear so." When she had finally decided to give birth to her daughter, she hadn't been able to decide what terrified her more – the idea that Ashley would inherit her ability or the idea that she wouldn't. The notion of losing the person that she loved with her whole heart was horrible and intolerable, but so was the idea of cursing her to live for eternity, to constantly watch others grow old and die without ever being able to join them. She'd been equal parts relieved and dismayed to discover that Ashley hadn't been born with her longevity, but now… Now it was all different.

John could sense Helen's fear and disappointment, and on some level he could understand it, but this news seemed good from his point of view. Their practically indestructible child would now always be there for her mother. When Helen lost him – something that seemed inevitable – she wouldn't be alone. The idea brought him a surprising amount of peace.

He gently took her hand, and she didn't pull away. "What are you going to do now?" he asked.

"I don't think there's much I can do. She'll have to learn how to control her abilities, learn to live with them."

John shook his head. "I suppose I should have asked what WE are going to do. About this little situation." He gestured to their surroundings.

Helen took a deep breath. "I don't know." If there really was no way to stop him from becoming a killer, then she couldn't let him out of that cell. But since he, too, had her longevity, it seemed impossibly cruel to leave him caged in her basement for all time. Equally harsh – or possibly even more so – was the prospect of constantly having to give him shock therapy to repair the damage to his brain. "I have a few tests running right now; I don't know if they'll pan out."

"What are you proposing?"

"I know I was reluctant to try it before, but there's a possibility that Ashley's DNA could help you. I don't know if I can isolate the right elements for her regenerative abilities, and even if I do, I'm not certain it will work, but… I'm doing some research."

John saw the conflict on her features, and fought a smile. He'd always loved to watch her puzzle over problems. And this was a bloody good riddle to solve. "May I ask for something?"

"What?"

"A day with you and children. Just the four of us together, while I'm still myself. Then you may do whatever you deem necessary."

Helen slowly nodded. "Tomorrow?" Considering the fact that she had no idea why this was happening in the first place, there was no way to know how long he would still be himself. She couldn't put their children at risk.

"Perfect."

"I'll tell Ashley. Is there anything you'd like to do?"

"I suppose that leaving the estate is out of the question?"

Helen nodded. "Yes, I think that would be best."

"In that case, you two can pick whatever you'd like."

"All right…Goodnight, John."

He still held her fingers within his, and lifted them so that he could kiss the back of her hand. "Goodnight, my love."

* * *

TBC...


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Sorry! I have not abandoned this story, I promise. Life just got in the way of updating. I'll do my best to get the remaining chapters out before I move in a couple weeks.**

* * *

That night, Ashley was doing well enough that Helen decided she didn't have to stay in the infirmary. She could tell that her daughter was still feeling a little out of sorts as they walked through the section of the mansion that held everyone's living quarters. The blonde stayed close to the wall whenever they passed anyone, unable to trust herself around other people.

"I have an idea," Helen said as they reached the door to her suite. "Why don't we get James and the three of us can curl up by the fire together? I'll have some tea brought up." Ashley thought about it for a moment and finally nodded. She didn't really want to be alone right now.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, they were seated on Helen's bed, watching the flames flicker and crackle. Ashley simply played with her tea for a long moment, gently moving the spoon around long after the sugar cubes had dissolved. "Where's John?" she finally asked her mother.

Helen carefully re-situated her sleepy son on her lap. It was time to be straight with her daughter; Ashley wasn't stupid. "He's in the SHU."

She looked up fast. "What? Why?"

"He started to relapse and I can't let him wander about."

"Wait, he started getting brain damage again? Without teleporting?" Helen nodded. "That shouldn't be possible, right?"

"No – if it was truly the teleportation that was causing the injuries."

"So that means that's not what's really causing it?"

"Apparently not. Though I have no idea what is. It may just be a part of who he is, a completely unrelated condition."

Ashley was quiet for a long moment. "What about me?" she finally asked.

"What?"

"Have you scanned me? What if I have the same thing?"

"All of your test results are normal."

"Nothing about me is normal!" she shot.

Helen nodded slightly, conceding that point. "I haven't found any signs that you have the same problem."

"What about James?" Ashley persisted.

She froze. "What about him?"

"Do you think he's going to end up like John?"

That was a harrowing thought. "I don't know. There's a lot that I don't know right now, Ashley. I'm trying to find answers, but… At the moment, all that's certain is that your father is likely to become a danger to others with or without teleporting. And I have to figure out how to deal with it. Everything else… we'll take it as it comes."

She slowly nodded. "Sorry."

"I know this is a lot to deal with… I'm still looking into it, but you may be able to help him."

"How?"

"Your DNA. Especially now, your abilities may allow me to prevent the damage from reoccurring."

Ashley blanched. "What about everything else? I can do a lot more than heal myself."

"I know, and I have no desire to transfer any of that to your father. I just thought you might want to know – there may be an advantage to what's happened to you."

The blonde didn't reply. She'd be happy if she was able to help her father, but at the moment it seemed like the bad things far outnumbered the good.

"John wanted to have a day with us," Helen told her daughter, "Just… to be together." _In case it's the last time,_ she silently added.

The quiet lingered for a long moment. "Mom?" Ashley finally spoke up. "Can we stay in here with you tonight?"

She smiled, reminded of the days when her young daughter would run to her bed after a nightmare. "I'd like nothing more."

* * *

On his way downstairs the next morning, Will stopped at Ashley's open door. "Hey," he said when he saw her sitting by the window.

"Hey."

"You going somewhere?" he asked, noting that she was somewhat dressed up.

"Morocco."

Will frowned. "What? Oh, you mean 'Morocco'?" he made finger quotes with the word.

"Yeah. John wanted the four of us to do something for the day and that was the best Mom and I could come up with."

"Gotcha…How are you? We haven't really had a chance to talk since…"

She took a deep breath. "I know."

"Anything on your mind?"

"That's a joke, right?" Will smiled a little. "I dunno. I guess I'm not as afraid of myself anymore. Mom was right; without the drugs, I can control everything as I want to."

"That's good."

"I'm still worried about everyone else, though. I mean… I've already had two people decide to use me for their own purposes. Who knows how many others are sitting around waiting for their turn?"

"You know we'll handle whatever comes. Nobody's letting you go without a fight."

"I know… I just don't understand how I'm supposed to have faith in the world anymore."

"Well, that's kind of the essence of faith. It's placing trust in an unknown. And sometimes it's misplaced, but that's part of living."

"Easier said than done."

Will smiled. "Definitely."

They both looked up at the sound of a knock. Helen was standing in the doorway and offered her daughter a smile. "Ready?" she asked.

* * *

Helen, John, and Ashley had all agreed to do their best to leave their numerous worries behind and just enjoy the day. The tent had been set up on the Sanctuary's roof and the family lounged on chairs and pillows inside, imagining that they were on the other side of the Atlantic. James had begun trying to walk – as long as he was holding onto something – and his parents and sister enjoyed encouraging him.

"Good job, buddy," Ashley told her brother as he plopped down in her lap after circling the table in the middle of the tent that held plates with their lunch.

John smiled as he watched. "I'm glad our trip was so memorable for you," he told Helen.

Ashley raised an eyebrow. "What trip?"

"That's how all of this started," Helen informed her daughter, gesturing to the tent. "John took me to Morocco for a day once."

"You never told me that."

"I know." There had been many secrets and half-truths as Ashley was growing up.

"I believe at the time you called it a kidnapping," John told his wife with a smile.

"It was! I was terribly busy with research," Helen explained to Ashley.

"I hadn't seen her outside of the lab in three days," John added.

"So one morning he simply came in, grabbed me around the waist, and teleported us to Africa."

Ashley's eyes widened. "Really? I bet she pitched a fit!"

"She did indeed," John agreed. "After she read me the riot act, she wouldn't speak to me for at least an hour. But eventually…"

Helen smiled. "I was hungry. And he'd procured quite a spread."

"We spent the day on a rooftop, just us," John continued the story. "Watched the stars appear and danced under the moon."

"Sounds like a great time," Ashley told them.

"It was," Helen agreed. "After… after everything, I decided to go back one day, by myself. It was a reminder of how I still needed to take time away from my work or else risk being so consumed by it that I can't see where my life is going." She and John shared a long look at that. He finally turned his attention to James, who was up and walking again.

"Come on, son," he encouraged the baby. James giggled as he sat down just a few steps away from his father's feet. "Oh, you'll walk to everyone but me?"

"Apparently," Ashley teased.

The smile suddenly melted from John's face. "Get him away from me!" he sharply told his daughter as he pressed both palms to his temples in pain. Helen stood as Ashley reached to comply.

"John? What's wrong?" the doctor asked.

"I-I don't know," he gritted out. "My head…" She reached to feel his pulse, but John suddenly backhanded her, sending her reeling. Plates clattered to the floor as she crashed into and broke the table. James began wailing in terror.

Ashley instantly reached for the bag that Helen had put in the corner of the tent – supplies for 'just in case'. She quickly pulled out a stunner, aimed, and shot her father moments before he could strike her mother again. John collapsed backwards to the floor, unconscious.

"What just happened?" Ashley asked Helen as she helped her mother sit up.

"I'm not sure," she replied. She cuddled James close, trying to calm him down.

"Oh, God, Mom. You're bleeding," Ashley said as she gently reached to finger the gash on her cheek. Her lip was also split and a bruise was quickly forming.

Helen waved her away. "I'm fine; I'll deal with it later."

They looked back to where John was sprawled on the floor. "How long does a stun from this thing last?" Ashley asked, indicating the weapon in her hand.

"On him, I'm not certain."

"Is a second shot going to kill him?"

"I don't think so." And so, without a moment's hesitation, Ashley shot him again. She'd gotten burned before when she'd thought her father was unconscious and he really wasn't. That was a mistake she wasn't going to make twice. "Don't try a third," her mother warned her.

"No promises," Ashley started to say, but her voice died off and both women stared in awe as white-hot electricity began to crackle along John's body. They scrambled to their feet and backed away from him. "What the hell was that?" Ashley inquired as it faded.

Helen was still watching her husband in wide-eyed amazement. "I have no idea."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N2: Feedback will make a pretty bad week a little bit better**.** :-)**


	12. Chapter 12

Helen called for the Big Guy to bring a gurney up to the roof and help them load John onto it in order to get him to the infirmary. Ashley carried James, who was still sniffling and whimpering, as her mother and the Sasquatch pushed the gurney.

Will was waiting for them when they arrived. "What happened?" he asked as he helped Helen start to get John hooked up to monitoring equipment and an IV.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "I need to make sure that he's stable, and then we have to get him back to the SHU. Level 5 security protocols."

"He's that bad already?" the psychiatrist inquired, taken aback by the sudden deterioration of John's condition.

Helen held his look. "I'm beginning to wonder if any of this has really been him at all."

Will frowned. "You want to add a few more details to that?"

"Not at the moment."

* * *

Once Will and the Big Guy were gone to secure John in the SHU and Ashley had taken James upstairs, Helen was free to start investigating her theory. In the main lab, she started pulling up John's medical records and displaying everything on the large monitors hanging from the ceiling.

She hadn't had way of recording electrical impulses from John's brain when they were first doing their research in England. The earliest EEG records that she had from him were less than two years old, taken during his last big relapse. She'd been more concerned with his fMRI results, and so had only done the EEG twice – once before the shock therapy and once afterward. Both had certain characteristics that would be considered atypical, but she had assumed that those were caused by his abilities. Of course his brain was different from most – he had the ability to convert his body into energy at will. After the events on the roof, however, she was wishing that she had a third scan, taken just after his injection with the source blood. She wanted another item for comparison. She had a horrible feeling that his abilities weren't the cause of the irregularities.

Helen put the two test output sheets side by side on two of the screens. The test measured the electrical fields within the brain. If her suspicions were correct, John's results would also show the electrical activity from whatever was inside of his body. She just needed a way to differentiate between the two.

"What's up, Doc?" Henry asked as he entered the room. "Will said something happened in 'Morocco'?" He made finger quotes as he said the word.

"Yes. I need your help. Can you merge these two scans?"

Henry frowned as he looked up at the screens. "Yeah, sure – as long as the raw data is still stored in the system."

"It is. For each data point, I want to subtract the result of the second scan from the first."

"All right…" He sat at the computer and started up one of the programs. "Should I ask what this is about?"

"No."

"Okay. I'm building a simple code that will do the calculations and – "

"Henry, please, just do it." He looked up, surprised by the edge in her voice, but stopped talking and just kept typing."

"There," he said after a few minutes, and set the new graphic to display on the third screen above them. "What is that?"

By eliminating what was similar about the two scans, Helen could now see what was different. What only existed at the height of his madness and was weakened or appeased after the therapy. "That," she replied with a sigh, "Is the signature of the energy creature living inside my husband."

* * *

She called a meeting with Will, Henry, Ashley, and her father in order to share her suspicions. Big Guy stayed in the SHU with John and had orders to shoot him again if he woke up. Helen had no intentions of allowing the energy creature to have control of John's body.

"An energy creature?" Will somewhat-incredulously asked as Helen tried to explain the situation. "Seriously?"

"We've encountered them before," she told him, "Though never inside of a living being."

"How the hell did it get inside of him?" Henry wondered.

"Every time he teleports, he changes his body over to energy. Instantaneously moving from one location to another essentially means that he exists in a realm separate from our own. It's likely that this creature inhabited that realm and became integrated with him."

"How long has it been there?" Ashley quietly asked, certain that she already knew the answer.

"I have no way to tell right now," Helen admitted, "But it's entirely possible that he picked it up just after his abilities manifested."

"So…this thing is what's been causing the brain damage?" Gregory asked.

"I believe so. The creature basically feeds off of him, his energy. And it slowly destroys his brain in the process. The shock treatments weaken it and help John, but it seems to be adapting. The more I use the treatment, the faster it's recovering."

"Then what do we do now?" Henry inquired. "We have to get it out of him somehow, right?"

"We do, but besides that, we need a way to safely contain it so that it cannot use anyone else as a vessel."

He nodded. "On it, Boss."

* * *

Ashley and Gregory went to check on James, and Will helped Helen treat her injuries before he headed off to make the rounds with their residents. Helen headed down to the SHU to see her husband. The Big Guy was standing in the hall and looked up as she approached.

"Anything?" she asked.

He shook his head. "He's still out." The Big Guy reached a hairy hand to her face to gently touch the ugly bruise and cut on her cheek. Cleaning the blood off and putting a bandage on hadn't made it look much better. Helen gently wrapped her fingers around his.

"I'm all right, old friend," she promised. "Thank you for your concern. I'll stay with him for a while." He looked skeptical, but finally handed her his stunner and left her alone.

Helen entered the code to unlock the door and carefully shut it behind her once she'd stepped into the cell. She stood there for a long moment, watching for any sign that John was faking unconsciousness. Once she was sure, she stepped toward him and knelt beside the bed. She took his hand and twined their fingers together before resting her head against the side of the mattress.

"I'm sorry, my love," she whispered to him. "We were so incredibly arrogant, weren't we? So completely ignorant to the consequences of our actions. If only we'd taken more time, if only we'd had more resources… all of this could have been prevented."

* * *

She stayed there at his side for a couple of hours before a quiet knock on the door broke into her thoughts. Helen looked up and saw Will in the hallway, holding a tray. She wiped her eyes, got up, and left the cell to join him.

"I thought you might be hungry," he told her.

Her appetite was long gone, but she appreciated the gesture. "Thank you. Do you know how Henry's coming along?"

"He's looking into some things. I think it's still early." Helen simply nodded, and Will didn't miss the faraway look in her eyes. "What is it?" he finally asked.

"Hmm?"

"What's got you so worried?"

Helen raised an eyebrow. "You mean besides the obvious?" she shot.

"Yeah, besides the obvious. There's something else that you're not saying."

The doctor sighed. She needed someone to talk to and her normal confidant wasn't an option at the moment. "Henry is extremely talented, but… he wasn't the one who originally devised the shock treatment."

"I don't really think that you can call what Nikola did to John a treatment."

She couldn't argue with that. "It wasn't his intention at the time, but you can't dispute the results. I'm afraid that the one person who's going to be able to help him is a person I currently despise."

* * *

TBC...


	13. Chapter 13

Nobody in the Sanctuary got much sleep over the next few days. Helen was practically living in the med lab, except for trips upstairs to spend some time with her children. Henry had locked himself in the weapons lab. Will and Gregory were taking care of the day-to-day operations at the facility, with the Big Guy helping wherever he was needed. The tension and exhaustion showed on everyone's faces as they came together in Helen's office to discuss their progress.

"I'm still working on the shielding," Henry admitted from his seat in a chair in front of his boss' desk. Will was in the other chair, the Big Guy was by the window, and Ashley was leaning against the wall in the corner. "And yeah, I know that's what I said two days ago, too, but…"

Helen nodded. "What about our other option?"

"Just destroying it?" Henry asked. "I hadn't put a lot of time into that. I don't think we have a high chance of success without taking Druitt with it."

That was what she'd been afraid of. "Understood. We'll stay with Plan A. Will, I read your status update for the Sanctuary – thank you."

He shrugged. "Things have been pretty quiet."

"I'm well aware that that's a relative term in this house," she started to reply, but intercom system chiming cut off the last word.

"Helen, you need to come to the SHU," her father told her.

"What's happening?"

"John's started seizing."

* * *

Helen wasn't sure if she'd ever run through her house that quickly before. Ashley was on her heels the whole way, while Will and Henry went to the infirmary to get a gurney and some supplies. By the time Helen got to the SHU, John was still seizing, a fact that sent a chill down her spine.

"How long has this been going on?" she asked her father. "Is he breathing?"

"Barely. It stopped for a few moments and then started again."

"Bloody hell…" She knelt at her husband's side and tried to feel for his pulse. Will and Henry ran up behind her.

"What do you need?" Will asked, putting down a box with various medications.

"Lorazepam and epinephrine." He handed her the bottles and syringes. She measured out the correct amounts of each and injected them. After an eternal moment, the seizure finally stopped. "He can't stay here; he needs to be in the infirmary. If this happens again, his heart may stop."

Will nodded. "We'll get the security protocols set up."

"No," Helen told him. "Father and I can do it… I need you to go and do everything you can to find Nikola."

He held her look for a long moment. "You're sure?"

She nodded. "I'm afraid time is getting short."

"Okay. I'll take the Big Guy."

"Thank you. I'm sorry, Henry," she told her tech expert as Will left.

Henry just shrugged. He was obviously not okay with the idea, but knew that they needed help if they were going to save John. "You want me back in the lab in the meantime?"

"Yes, please."

Helen, Gregory, and Ashley managed to get John on the gurney and headed for the infirmary. "If he starts seizing again," the doctor told her father, "I'm going to do the electroshock treatment. It's worked in the past to weaken this creature and it can buy us some more time."

"Do you think John can handle it?"

"I don't know, but we may have no option but to try. I'm not going to lose him."

* * *

It took a few weeks – far longer than Helen wanted – before Will and the Big Guy brought Tesla back to the Sanctuary. She had him thrown into a cell upon his arrival and really wanted to leave him there for a while, but there wasn't time for that right now.

Nikola smiled as he saw her approach the glass wall of his cell. "I was wondering where you were," he told her.

Helen's eyes were hard. "I wish that I could make you pay for what you've put my daughter through, but unfortunately I need your help."

"Of course you do," he replied. "You've never been able to live without me. However, there will be a price."

"Besides your continued existence?"

He smiled. "Yes. I want the results of a DNA scan on Ashley."

"No."

He shrugged. "Then it looks like we've all wasted our time."

"Do you have any idea what you did to her? You forced her to her breaking point without a second thought. She believed that she was killing herself in order to get away from you! You have done a lot of things in the last century that I've hated, but this… this cannot be forgotten."

Nikola scoffed. "Spare me. Of course I didn't actually have an EM shield; I'm not stupid. I assumed she would try that eventually, and what would be the purpose in killing her? Of course, I thought I'd have what I needed from her, first, but… there's still a way to make that happen. You get what you want and I get what I want."

"No," she repeated.

"Come on, Helen. Some of my data was already backed up. You know that eventually I'll get what I need with or without you. At least this way, you'll get to save your husband in the process."

* * *

Will, Henry, and Gregory looked up in surprise when Helen entered the lab with Tesla in tow. "He agreed to help?" her protégé asked. "How'd you manage that?"

"It's because she loves me," Nikola quipped. The glare that Helen shot in his direction could have frozen a sun.

"We'll discuss it later," she told her team. "Right now, we have work to do."

"We know that certain types of electrical stimulation have weakened or appeased the creature in the past," Nikola stated. "It also reverses the brain damage that John suffers."

"But every time, the creature is recovering faster and getting stronger," Helen pointed out. "That isn't an option anymore. We need to remove it and contain it."

"I'm sure I can solve whatever difficulties Heinrich has been having developing a vessel," Tesla boasted. "Your problem is going to be getting this creature to give up the nice comfy home that it's enjoyed for over a century. I assume you'd prefer that that home remain alive through the process?" he asked Helen.

"You assume correctly," she replied, giving him another look.

"What if he doesn't?" Will suddenly asked.

"What?"

"Do you remember my first trip on your submarine? You got infected with that parasite and I had to kill you to get rid of it."

"You killed her?" Nikola cut in, his face lighting up. "My, my, Helen. Your little field trips are far more interesting than they used to be!"

She ignored him. "You're suggesting – "

"If dying made you a pretty undesirable host for the parasite," Will continued, "Then it would probably make John unsuitable for this energy creature."

* * *

TBC...


	14. Chapter 14

There was still a lot of work that had to be done. Once Tesla was set up in the lab with Henry (and a few bottles of Cabernet), Helen made the nightly rounds of the facility and then headed up to the living quarters. James was already asleep, and she slipped into his nursery to watch him for a long moment.

_If only we could all be so blissfully unaware,_ she thought as she bent over to kiss his forehead. _If only life could be so simple for all of us._

Ashley's room down the hall was her next stop. The Big Guy had told her that her daughter hadn't set foot outside of that room since Nikola had arrived in the Sanctuary earlier in the morning. Not that Helen could blame her. She was therefore surprised to find the door open and the room empty.

Her heart instantly leapt to her throat. There was no way that Nikola could have gotten up here, was there? She'd had Henry set up extra security protocols to firewall the living quarters from the rest of the Sanctuary. Had they missed something? She hadn't wanted to do this in the first place, but couldn't think of another option. Was her only chance of saving her husband going to cost her both John and their daughter?

Helen quickly headed back down the hall toward her office and activated the intercom. "Henry? Are you still in the weapons lab?"

There was a seemingly-eternal pause before he answered. "Uh, yeah…and you might want to get down here ASAP."

* * *

As she entered the small room in the lower levels of the main house, she realized her search for her daughter was over. Ashley actually had Nikola pinned to the wall using the electricity from a conduit she'd torn from the wall with her bare hands. Her eyes were yellow, her claws and fangs were out, and she looked positively lethal.

"Little help here?" Nikola asked, straining to fight back against Ashley's powers. He'd been caught off-guard and Helen was surprised – and a little frightened – to see that he was struggling against her daughter.

Helen ignored him. "What happened?" she asked Henry, who was standing off to the side watching the scene in a mix of awe and horror.

"I have no idea," he replied. "One second, me and Count Dracula are standing here talking about components and the next… She just walked in decked him. Best right hook I ever saw. And then the two of them just started duking it out. She didn't say a word and isn't answering anybody. It's like she's on autopilot or something."

Ashley hadn't reacted in the slightest to her mother's presence or their conversation. Helen stepped forward to be in her daughter's line of sight, carefully the beam of energy that she and Nikola were fighting over. "Ashley, stop," she told her daughter. "Ashley? Can you hear me?"

She suddenly froze, her concentration – and aim – wavering. That was enough for Tesla to get free. He started to head for the door, but Helen pulled out a gun and aimed it straight at him.

"Don't move," she ordered.

"Helen – "

"What exactly gives you the impression that I'm in the mood to play games with you?" He obligingly shut his mouth and stayed still. Helen handed the gun to Henry. "If he moves a muscle, shoot him," she told the younger man.

He smiled. "With pleasure."

Helen was then able to focus her attention solely on her daughter. Ashley was watching Nikola like a hawk, ready to attack again. "Ashley, look at me. Look at me!" Slowly, the blonde turned. "What are you doing here?"

She seemed to come back to herself a little more. Her eyes faded to their normal blue. "Mom?"

"Yes, darling. Are you all right?"

"I don't know…" Ashley looked around, as if trying to determine her surroundings. Her eyes finally landed on Nikola and she stiffened.

Helen noticed. "Why did you come down here?" she asked, trying to refocus her daughter's attention.

"I-I'm not sure. I was upstairs thinking… I did NOT want to see him; I didn't want to have anything to do with him. But then I just started walking… I wished he could feel like I did, could be afraid. And I know you need him, but I didn't care."

"Forget about dear old dad, huh?" Nikola asked with a smirk.

Henry tightened his grip on the gun. "Talking counts as moving."

The Serb's smile grew. "Unless those bullets are silver – "

"They are," Helen interrupted and added, "Now shut up," before turning back to Ashley. "I can appreciate how you're feeling. But even if we didn't need him… you don't want to do this. It's not who you are."

She looked back to Nikola. "It's who he tried to make me."

"He failed. Despite everything else, you are still my daughter. That will never change – I won't let it."

Ashley stared at her for a long moment. "You promise?"

Helen took her hand. "I do. Come on, luv." As she guided her daughter toward the door, she spared a glance at Henry and Nikola. "Get back to work," she told the vampire in a tone that left no room for discussion.

* * *

Up in the living quarters, Helen sat Ashley down in her and John's bedroom and went to get a washcloth to clean the bit of blood off her daughter's face. The wound that the blood had come from had vanished. "Already healed," the doctor told her with a small smile as she got up to return the cloth to the bathroom.

"I'm a freak, remember?" Ashley muttered, her eyes downcast. Helen sat beside her.

"You're not a freak."

"Really?" she shot back. "So normal people have fangs and claws and live forever?"

"Normal is quite often overrated."

"That may have worked when I was seven, Mom, but now… Things are different now."

"I know they are."

"I wish we could go back, like, two years or something. That's all. Just do everything over."

"I've had Henry working on a time travel device in his spare time." Ashley looked up in surprise and they shared a smile when she realized Helen was teasing her. "Unfortunately, darling, life doesn't work that way. I know that the past few years have been very difficult, but you will adjust."

"How about we just skip ahead in time until that's already happened?"

Helen smiled slightly. "I know we've talked a few times about bringing Nikola here to help and what that would mean. Obviously I should have done more and I apologize for that."

"Mom – "

"Do you want to stay at the London Sanctuary until he's gone?"

Ashley frowned. "What? No!"

"If you don't feel safe here – "

"This is my home. I'll deal."

Helen studied her for a moment, trying to determine if Ashley was just putting on a brave face. She finally nodded. "All right. I'll start trying to see if there's a way to prevent something like this from happening again."

"Yeah, I'd like to stay in conscious control of my body."

"Medications may help. I'll speak to Will and see if he has any ideas."

Ashley nodded. "Thanks… I'm sorry I'm giving you something else to worry about right now on top of everything with John."

"I'm your mother. I will always worry about you – it's part of the job description… And I quite prefer it to the alternative."

Ashley was quiet for a moment. "Mom? Can I stay here with you again tonight?"

Helen squeezed her daughter's fingers. For so many years, it had just been the two of them. Despite everything they'd been through, that bond was permanent. "Of course."

* * *

TBC...


	15. Chapter 15

In the morning, Helen was sitting by the window in her office feeding James when Ashley came in with a tray. "Morning," she told her mother.

"Good morning."

"I brought you some breakfast."

"Thank you. How did you sleep?" Helen asked as Ashley put the tray on her desk. She had been up and about long before her daughter awakened.

"Okay."

"Any nightmares?" Ashley shook her head. "Good."

"How's John doing?"

"He's still holding on for the moment. Hopefully we'll have some progress today."

Ashley nodded slightly. "I found something a couple weeks ago that should be yours." She handed her mother a folded up piece of paper. "It was in his cell in the SHU. I found it when I was cleaning up. I saw it was written to you and…I wasn't sure if it would make things better or worse. But I couldn't keep it secret anymore."

Helen frowned slightly. She recognized John's handwriting on the front: FOR HELEN. Balancing James, she managed to unfold the paper.

IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN I'M GONE.

She quickly folded the paper in half again. "Um, can you take your brother and get him dressed?" she asked Ashley.

The blonde nodded and reached for James. "Come on, little prince."

Once she was alone, Helen started reading once more – reading the goodbye that she never wanted to have.

* * *

A couple hours later, she slowly pushed open the door to the infirmary and stood just inside, simply watching her unconscious husband. Henry had reported in that he and Tesla should be finished shortly. If things went well, this would soon all just be a memory. If they didn't go well… these were her final moments alone with John.

She quickly wiped away the single tear that had managed to escape her eye. She didn't have time for her fears to get the better of her. Right now she had to be Dr. Magnus. She could be Helen later once she was hidden away from the world in her bedroom with her recovered husband. John was her protector, and always had been. The rest of the world only got to see the façade, but she let him see what was underneath. He had been there to celebrate her successes or comfort her after her failures and she'd grown horribly dependent on his presence.

She'd hated him for that when he was gone, hated herself for needing another person so much. She was supposed to be the strong, independent woman that defied all societal conventions. It wasn't easy for her to trust, to truly let others in. But she'd taken the chance and it had gone terribly wrong. Despite everything he'd put her through, as soon as John had came back, she'd once again desperately craved the security that he could provide. He completed her in a way no one else ever had or could. They'd never get each other out of their systems.

Clutched in her hand was John's letter. She'd read it several times during the morning but now Helen took the sheet of paper and slowly began to tear it up. "You're not allowed to give up on me," she told her husband as she stepped forward and dropped the pieces into a trash can. "Not now. 'Until death do us part' was supposed to be a very long time in the future."

The sound of the door behind her opening made her turn around. Will and her father entered the room. "Hey," her protégé softly said.

Helen hoped she looked more put-together than she felt. "Are we all set?" as asked them.

He nodded. "Henry and Tesla are on their way."

"Good."

"Um… You're sure you don't want one of us to do this instead?"

She forced a small smile. "Thank you, but no. It should be me."

Nikola and Henry came in at that moment with their joint creation, a container that could safely hold the energy creature. "Not bad, if I do say so myself," Nikola boasted as he showed it to her.

Helen and Gregory hooked up electrodes coming from the container to John's chest. The device had an internal power source, which could was controlled remotely from Henry's tablet. He handed his boss the device and everyone stepped back. She stared at John for a long moment.

"Forgive me," she whispered before tapping the stylus over a button on the screen. The system issued a severe shock to his body. Everybody flinched at the sight – everyone except Helen. The electrical charge was intended to stop his heart, and they could only hope that they'd be able to get it started again before he suffered any ill effects.

When the shock stopped, there was a moment of total stillness. Then energy began to crackle along the leads from his body to the container. As soon as it had finished transferring, they all jumped into action. Helen disconnected the electrodes and Henry and Tesla got the box out of the way. Helen didn't really care what they did with the creature at the moment; all of her attention was on John.

"No pulse," she told her father after checking. Gregory immediately pulled over the crash cart that they'd had waiting. Helen turned the machine on and grabbed the paddles. "Charging to 250," she told her father. He had gotten an ambu bag to force air into John's lungs. "Clear!" she told him when the defibrillator had charged. Once Gregory had moved away, she shocked John and then checked again for his heartbeat. "Nothing. Charging to 300… Clear."

Still no signs of life. Helen reached for a syringe that she'd prepared and injected John with the medication. "Charging to 360… Clear."

Dread began to wash over her a she checked for a pulse once more and didn't find one. Maybe the creature damaged not only his brain but his heart? This 'death' was supposed to be reversible but with each passing moment, the chances of success were dwindling.

"Charging again. Clear!"

John's whole body jerked, and he gasped as his heart and lungs began functioning normally again. In that moment, Helen started breathing again, too.

"Stay still," she told him as she put the paddles down. Disoriented, he was weakly trying to sit up and she gently pushed him back down to the bed.

"Wh-what happened?" John asked.

Helen twined her fingers through his and smiled, although her eyes were shining with unshed tears. "That is a very long story."

* * *

The tale was pretty incredible, and John probably wouldn't have believed it if they didn't have the proof in a box. The Sanctuary's newest intake would be stored in the SHU; hopefully they'd be able to learn from it.

Later that night, Helen went to the infirmary to check on John. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she stood by his bed.

"I feel as though the world has been lifted from my shoulders."

She smiled. "Good."

"How are the children?"

"James is asleep and Ashley is out with Henry picking up a few supplies that they've been pestering me about for the past couple of months. I thought it would be a good distraction for her."

"Mmm. Is our houseguest under lock and key?"

She nodded. "Yes, Nikola is back in his cell. With mechanical locks instead of electronic ones."

"Lesson learned… You look tired," John pointed out.

Helen smiled. "You're not supposed to notice," she teased.

"I've always seen what you hide from everyone else." He slid over slightly on the bed and lifted the corner of the blanket so that she could join him. Helen stepped out of her heels before she lay down beside him. She sighed in contentment as John wrapped his arms around her.

"I was truly frightened," Helen whispered after a moment. She hadn't been this close to her breaking point in over a century.

He held her a little closer. "I know."

"I've lived without you once before. I don't want to do it again."

"Things will be different now."

* * *

TBC...

**A/N: One chapter to go!**


	16. Epilogue

John didn't think staying in the infirmary was necessary, but Helen overruled. His body had been through a great trauma, and she wanted to make sure that he really was all right. By the second day, however, he'd had quite enough of doing nothing but lying in bed. His head spun a little when he got up, but not enough to deter him from trying to get dressed and head upstairs. He was just getting his shoes on when the door opened.

"Uh-oh," Ashley said as she came in, carrying James. "Somebody's busted."

John sighed. "Did your mother send you?"

"Mmm-hmm. She figured that you'd be trying to bolt by now."

"You could tell her that I was already gone when you got here."

Ashley shook her head. "Sorry. I'd rather be on your bad side than hers."

"Fair enough," John agreed as he sat back down on the bed. "How are you doing?"

She shrugged as she handed James to him. "More or less okay."

"Truthfully?"

"Yeah. I mean… I wasn't when I first got back, but…"

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to be here for you."

"Not like that was your choice. I dunno. I'm taking each day as it comes. I've got a very, very long time to adjust, huh?" John nodded slightly. "I was scared…and pissed as hell at Tesla…but I'm just tired of it. I'm tired of being scared and confused and angry. It sucks. I didn't used to be afraid of anything."

"You've seen a lot since then. The less pleasant things that this world has to offer."

"I'm betting that I'm probably going to see a lot more. But I know that my family has my back."

John smiled. "I don't know how I could have such an intelligent daughter. That's certainly all your mother's doing."

Ashley laughed. "Yeah. But, thanks…Dad."

He looked up in surprise and they shared a smile. "You're welcome."

* * *

After a few days, Helen decided that having Tesla in the Sanctuary – even locked in a cell – was probably inviting trouble that she didn't want to have to deal with. However, if he was free in the world, he'd undoubtedly create some mess that she'd have to clean up. So she selected option C.

"Do you think I've been adequately chastened?" Nikola asked as he came into her office.

"I highly doubt that's even possible," she replied. "But I do want you out of my house. So I've arranged for other accommodations."

Nikola narrowed his eyes. "Where are you stashing me?"

"Moskva krasiva v eto vremya goda," she told him in Russian. _Moscow is beautiful this time of year_.

He scoffed. "Moscow is well below zero this time of year. Wait – you're casting me off to Gennady? Helen – "

"I'm sure that the two of you will be able to work out your differences."

"Oh, of course," he sniped. "I had a feeling that you'd do something like this. And I came here anyway."

She raised an eyebrow. "You weren't really given a choice."

"Well, we had a deal. And if I have to be exiled to that frozen hellhole, I'd better at least get my payment first."

Helen sighed, but reached for a file folder that was on her desk. Nikola grinned as he took it from her. And then, as he looked over what was inside, his smile faded. "Is this a joke?" he asked.

"It's what you requested. A DNA analysis from my daughter."

"Yes, I know what I asked for. I wanted to know what's happened to her recently. I don't care what her workup looked like when she was born!"

Helen shrugged slightly. "You didn't really specify."

Nikola glared, knowing that she was right and hating it. "You know that you won't be able to hold me forever," he spat as he tossed the folder back onto her desk.

She knew, but they would still do their very best. "Whatever you have to tell yourself to get through the days."

"One day, you'll let your guard down and then I'll be gone," Nikola proclaimed. "And you won't stop me from trying to resurrect my race."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you. However, know that if you even consider involving my family again, there won't be anywhere on this planet that you can hide."

"I'll make sure of it," a voice agreed, and they both looked up to see John standing in the doorway. Nikola rolled his eyes.

"What DO you see in him, anyway?" he asked Helen.

She gave him a thin-lipped smile. "Goodbye, Nikola. Enjoy your flight." The Big Guy was waiting for him in the hallway to start Tesla's transfer to Russia. Once they were gone, John shut the door. "How are you doing?" Helen asked her husband.

"Well enough. I was thinking… perhaps we are in need of a honeymoon."

"What?"

"If we continue to wait for a good time to take a vacation, we'll never be able to have one. So we should just go and whatever happens will happen and we'll deal with it."

Helen thought about that for a moment and nodded. "All right. What did you have in mind?"

"I've heard mention of a villa someone owns on Isola de Capri?"

She smiled. "Mmm, yes. I believe I'm overdue for a trip there."

"Well, then…" He handed her two slips of paper – tickets departing from New City to Naples, Italy in two weeks. Helen cocked her head in confusion.

"Plane tickets?" she asked. "I think there's a slightly more efficient way to get there. We should probably be cautious, but you can use your abilities again."

John shook his head. "No, I can't."

"Why not?"

"What if I pick up some other creature – or worse, what if I have you or our children with me and something happens?"

She hadn't thought about that scenario in her excitement over resolving what had plagued him for the last century. "John – "

"This is safest," he interrupted. "I know that you almost lost me and… I won't put you through that again."

Helen slowly nodded. "Okay – for now. I'll start working on a way to prevent creatures from latching on to you."

"Thank you."

They both turned as the intercom crackled to life. "Hey, Boss, we have a little situation in the lab!" Henry said.

A sound like a small explosion in the background made Helen's eyes widen. "I'll be right there," she replied.

John smiled as they both headed for the door. "Back to life as normal around here?" he asked.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

FIN.

**A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you to the folks who have been following along and sent feedback. (If you're not in that category, it's not too late!) I was considering doing another story in this little world if there's interest.  
**


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